Baseball mourns Bobby Murcer

Bobby Murcer always seemed to make the best of every situation, even when the chips were against him.

He was signed by the same scout who had signed Mickey Mantle to the New York Yankees, and ended up replacing the iconic Mantle in center field at Yankee Stadium. With that to live up to, he had an underrated career from some underachieving Yankees teams in the early 1970s. He had a four-year run as an all-star starter and had the stats to back it up. He hit .331 with 25 homers and 94 RBI in 1971 and 33 homers the following year.

He was traded away from the Yankees just as they became a power again, and hit 27 homers for the 1977 Cubs before coming back to New York in 1979 as a role player in his final five seasons. His best moment, many say, came after the eulogy he delivered at the funeral for friend and teammate Thurman Munson, who died in a plane crash in August 1979. The next night, he drove in five runs in a Yankees victory over the Orioles.

His second chapter was as a broadcaster, and he was every bit as popular as he was as a player. He won three Emmy awards as a Yankees broadcaster, and raised money for cancer research as early as 1990 before, in a cruel irony, brain cancer slowed him down late in 2006.

He died Saturday at age 62 at his home in Oklahoma City.

"If there's a Hall of Fame for people, he's in it," former teammate Reggie Jackson told the Associated Press. "He was such a good person, and he was appreciative of the people who cared so much for him."

Added current Yankee Jason Giambi. "He always had that bright smile and that positive spin on everything. He was the type of guy who never had a bad day."